The Planning Process
What can you expect
when we work together?
Our initial “financial plan” for a client can take as long as a year, because each topic — taxes, investments, insurance, estate planning — can take hours, weeks, and sometimes months to properly address. It’s not really a plan, it’s a financial process. Realistically, most clients can’t devote the intense hours needed to properly address all of their financial needs in a short period of time, and static financial plans quickly get outdated anyway. We do not give you a printed financial plan.
Instead, we’ve seen that clients appreciate the luxury of spreading out their planning meetings so we can do a proper deep-dive on each topic and make regular updates based on new life events.
During our first few meetings, we will talk about your financial goals. For example, are you looking to retire early? Pay for your children’s education? Purchase a second home? Consolidate your finances and statements in one place?
Together, we will start to document your assets, liabilities, income, and expenses. This includes current and future estimates, enabling us to plan for your lifelong financial independence.
Then we will create some reports. This involves the creation of a Net Worth statement, a Cash Flow, and various What-If Analyses. After that, we begin to deep-dive into specific planning areas in order of priority, such as consolidating student loans, investment re-allocation, reviewing insurance policies, creating an estate plan, and reviewing tax returns.
A thorough financial strategy looks at each and every aspect of your life.